Susan Legêne, Mallaby’s Car: Perspectives on an English, Dutch, Indonesian and Indian Decolonization Clash

A photograph of the destroyed saloon in which, on 30 October 1945 Brigadier Aubertin W.S. Mallaby was killed in the streets of Surabaya (Indonesia) leads us to different past-relationships within Europe, with respect to Europe’s history of decolonization. In an interview for a Dutch documentary, Mallaby’s two now-retired sons explain what happened on 30 October, and how they feel about the event, personally and historically. The photograph triggers questions on how the shared European imperial past after 1945 turned into distinct national histories, and the role of museums in this fragmentation of our historical understanding of Europe. The presentation links to the HERA-PhotoCLEC programme, detailed at: http://photoclec.dmu.ac.uk/ Some images, sounds or other media used in the following presentation are subject to copyright restrictions that prevent them being shown. In order to provide a complete record of the conference, these items have been blurred or silenced. Should we obtain permission to use these images, sounds and other media in the future the films will be updated.